Ibn Khaldun Today

by Sertaç Sehlikoglu Abstract: The aim of this paper is to locate critique at the intersections of the genealogy of knowledge in anthropological thinking and the decolonising movement. The paper approaches the decolonising movement as one of the most crucial points in anthropological thinking. It is built on the premise that the decolonising movement is set to go beyond filling the gaps in genealogies and it can do so by: (1) revising the ‘dismissed’ genealogies that have contributed to the formation of the contemporary classical theory and (2) thinking creatively in implementing the critical thinking tools to the dismissed scholarship, in an equal manner to the Eurocentric scholarship. To illustrate, it uses the case of Ibn Khaldun, an Arab scholar of social sciences and historical analysis from the 14 th Century, often referred to as the first sociologist. On the one hand, his influence on classical Western thinking is largely dismissed. On the other hand, as a counter-response to t...

The article "Ibn Khaldun as a Social Holist Philosopher" presents a compelling exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of Ibn Khaldun's social theory, particularly through his concept of Asabiyyah . The author situates Ibn Khaldun within the broader discourse of social holism, drawing comparisons between his ideas and those of Ferdinand Tönnies, as well as with key thinkers in the Western tradition such as Aristotle, Marx, and contemporary philosophers like Philip Pettit. Through this comparative analysis, the paper asserts that Ibn Khaldun offers a rich, nuanced perspective on human sociality that bridges Islamic and Western philosophical traditions. Central to the article is the thesis that Ibn Khaldun’s social philosophy, specifically his concept of Asabiyyah , offers a form of social holism that emphasizes the interdependence of individuals within a community. The paper begins by framing social holism in contrast to social atomism, the latter asserting that in...

by Sayeda Akhter, PhD, Md. and Ashif Hasan Razu ABSTRACT:  This paper presents a comparative analysis of the contributions of Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century Arab scholar, and Auguste Comte, a 19th-century French philosopher, to the development of sociology. While Auguste Comte is widely acknowledged in the Western tradition as the “father of sociology,” Ibn Khaldun’s seminal work, “Muqaddimah”, place the Preliminary work for a systematic approach to social and historical analysis several centuries before Comte. Ibn Khaldun’s pioneering ideas on social cohesion, economic foundations, and the cyclical nature of civilizations challenge the conventional Eurocentric narrative that places the origins of sociological thought exclusively within Western intellectual history. This paper examines the methodologies, theories, and socio-historical contexts that shaped the works of both thinkers. Ibn Khaldun’s empirical observations and his concept of “asabiyyah” (social cohesion) are compared with...